CHAPTER 322: THE END?

Hmm...

More theories came into my mind, each closer to the truth than the last.

For example, my fantasy stories related knowledge had info about some entities that even had their consciousness split across multiple vessels - killing one body might just free him to inhabit another, stronger form he’d prepared elsewhere.

There was also info about liches who could change their vessels from one body to another, and even to inanimate objects, entities who could possess new hosts upon death, and ancient spirits who treated physical destruction as merely an inconvenience.

So yeah, killing him here wouldn’t probably do anything good for us.

(Master,) I said finally, my suspicion crystallizing into certainty, (let’s not kill him, but continue sealing him here. It feels like he’s purposely trying to make us kill him.)

Virion’s mental voice carried a note of approval. (Hmm... alright, I’ll listen to you. Your instincts have served us well so far.)

Virion let out a low, rumbling chuckle that seemed to vibrate through the very bones of the chamber. "You wish to die that badly, little worm?"

"Who would want to die this easily?" The Architect’s response was a dry, hollow laugh. "But then again, even if I were to find a logical reason to beg for my life, you would still kill me at the end. So it’s better to die quickly rather than endure whatever tormenting death you have in your mind."

The logic was sound, the despair palpable. It was a perfect performance.

7/10 from me.

"Alright," Virion said, his tone deceptively light. "As you wish then."

He floated away from my shoulder, his small serpentine form gliding through the air toward the pulsating Nexus Stone instead of the architect.

Huh?

I watched, my heart hammering against my ribs, but I forced myself to remain still. I trusted Virion completely, even if I couldn’t understand what he was trying to do.

Could it be..? Hm?

A barely perceptible glint shone from within the depths of the Architect’s hooded cloak before he instantly suppressed it.

But he couldn’t hide that tell from me.

"Eh?"

To both our astonishment, Virion directly took the relic from its place, placing a claw upon its surface. The relic flared with incandescent blue light, so bright it forced me to look away.

’!’

The air hummed with power, ancient and immense, as Virion played with it, occasionally teasing the architect to make it drop below but ’catch’ it before it hit the floor.

I barely hold myself back from laughing out loud.

However, I noticed he wasn’t playing around at all, at least not on the surface. He was probably tampering with the relic or controlling it.

"H-how...?" the Architect stammered, his voice laced with genuine shock and something that sounded like dread. "That’s not... you can’t..."

The architect’s reaction told me everything I needed to know.

So that’s what he was doing.

After a long moment, the light faded. The Nexus Stone pulsed with a stronger, steadier rhythm, its blue glow seeming cleaner, more potent.

The chamber itself changed, the surroundings illuminating more clearly, revealing the walls, the obsidian shift, and the shadowy pond more clearly.

"Hmm~"

Virion floated back to my shoulder, looking utterly unimpressed while humming boredly.

"Alright," he said, his voice flat. "I’ve finished repairing its power."

"B-but how?"

The Architect stared, utterly speechless.

His entire form seemed to deflate, the hopeful anticipation completely wiped away and replaced with pure, unadulterated horror.

"Now, you can wait for your death more peacefully here. It should only take... oh, another five hundred thousand years or so."

Oh, savage as always!

I praised Virion as I watched the architect trembling violently.

The renewed, purer light from the Nexus Stone flared, and it seemed to burn him. The shadows that composed his cloak recoiled as if touched by searing iron, writhing and pulling away from the radiant relic’s glow. Defeated, broken, his form seemed to melt, sinking down into the waiting darkness of the shadowy pool from which he’d emerged. Or more like he was being sucked into.

"YOU!"

"You will pay for this!"

"I curse you both!"

As he submerged, a voice, choked with venom and despair, echoed from the depths, a final curse spat at the void.

"May the Abyss swallow your light and the void claim your souls! May every step you take lead you to ruin and every victory turn to ash in your—"

His curse was cut short as the shadows of the pool closed over him completely, muffling his voice into nothingness. The pool fell still, its surface becoming as smooth and dark as polished obsidian once more.

Virion watched, unimpressed, then gave a casual, dismissive wave with the tip of his tail. A faint, mischievous smile played on his serpentine features.

"Have a nice sleep," he chirped, his tone dripping with false sweetness. "Jie~ Jie~"

Feeling a surge of camaraderie, I found myself copying the gesture, raising my hand and giving a little wave toward the now-quiet pool.

"Sweet dreams~"

And with that final, mocking farewell, the chamber fell silent, leaving only the steady, powerful pulse of the Nexus Stone to keep the Architect company for the millennia to come.

Turning my head, I looked at the small serpent coiled on my shoulder. "Master," I began, my voice a whisper in the vast space. "What exactly happened? Why did he... get sucked back in like that?"

Virion tilted his head, a smug, knowing smile gracing his features. "I simply renewed and improved the prison’s core functions. The relic was old, its powers degraded over the eons. He had learned to work around its limitations, to project an avatar and eventually to freely roam around. I wiped the slate clean and activated a few more functions."

He gave a little flick of his tail.

"The prison now actively suppresses his consciousness, forcing it back into a dormant state within the core containment field — the pool. It will likely take him a few centuries just to form a coherent thought again, let alone come out as easily as this. I Or, in short, he is just back in his cell."

I nodded slowly, the pieces clicking into place.

The Architect hadn’t just been defeated; he had been reset, his progress over who-knows-how-many-millennia erased in a few moments by Virion’s superior skill. The scale of it was staggering.

I let out a long, slow breath, the adrenaline finally beginning to recede.

The bone floor, the obsidian walls, the humming stone—it all felt strangely anticlimactic now that the confrontation was over.

"So..." I muttered, almost to myself. "This is it. The end?"

Virion glanced at me, his emerald eyes glinting with ancient amusement. He let out a soft, rumbling chuckle that vibrated through my very bones.

"End?" he repeated, his voice laced with the weight of countless ages. "Foolish child. This is not the end."

He shifted on my shoulder, his gaze turning toward the pulsing light of the Nexus Stone, but seeing far, far beyond it.

"This... is just the beginning."